Family BANNED from Flight for The Most Ridiculous Reason

A Penrith mother is fuming after being left out of pocket more than $5000 after her family were refused entry to a Jetstar flight.

Laura was on holidays with her partner Jae and their twin two-year-old boys, along with another couple and their young daughter when they were left stranded.

The group were due to fly home from Hamilton Island after spending ten days on the Whitsunday Island, when the airline refused to let them board because of her two-year-old son’s tantrum on their flight up.

According Kidspot, Laura’s son, Mattea threw a tantrum as the Jetstar crew were preparing the cabin for landing. He threw himself on the floor and under the seat in front, while Laura tried to wrestle him into a chair.

“He was overtired and cranky, I was wrestling him, I did everything I could,” she says. “I thought the staff mustn’t have children because everyone with a child, knows the ‘terrible twos’ is a real thing.”

After the family got off the plane, a baggage handler approached Jae and informed him that the captain had made a complaint about their son’s behaviour.

He then told the couple, “don’t be surprised if you get refused your flight home”’.

However, Laura was surprised when she arrived at the gate to fly home with her twins, as she was asked to wait to the side.

“I asked the hostess, ‘what’s the problem?’, and they said they were waiting on confirmation from the captain to allow our group on the flight, because there were issues on the flight up,” she says.

“We waited, and next thing our bags are getting taken off the flight. The hostess told me ‘you won’t be flying today because of the behaviour of your son’.”

“We were very upset and arguing at the gate — I said ‘you can’t refuse a flight because of a two-year-old’.”

“I asked again, how they could refuse us over a two-year-old, then I was told it was my reaction and that’s why we weren’t allowed on.”

The group were then banned from flying for 24 hours after arguing with airline staff.

“How would they like us to react? They just banned us from flying because of a two-year-old, we have to get back to work — this was Wednesday and they weren’t letting us on a flight until Friday,” she’s told Kidspot.

The family accepted an offer of a full refund and they switched airlines. Almost a week later they’ve only received half of the refund and are now out of pocket more than $5000 for new flights and additional nights’ accommodation.

In a statement to Kidspot, Jetstar said on February 11, its crew reported ‘disruptive behaviour’ by a ‘male adult passenger’ who did not follow safety instructions on the flight from Sydney to Hamilton Island.

On February 22, prior to the group boarding to Sydney, the crew alerted the captain of the incident and this caused a small delay to the passengers. Jetstar’s crew then reported “disruptive behaviour by adults” at the gate, and the decision was then made they would not fly on that flight.